Time Management
For the past two semesters, I’ve been in one class (either online or in class) and one guided independent study (GIS) class. The instructor that I’ve had for the GIS classes (the same one for all four classes) just gave me all of the reading assignments, homework, and tests up front, and told me to finish them before the 8 weeks was up for the class. This meant that I had one class worth of work that had a strict schedule on getting things done because I could do work on the GIS class as I had time. I only had to make time for one class.
I’m currently in two online classes (all done with GIS for now), and that means that I have two strict schedules to stick to for reading, posting on the forums, replying to posts, getting homework done, and working on final projects. I’m struggling with getting all of this done, and still finding time to work, eat, sleep, and maybe spending a little time with Kiara.
I’m only in the third week of the two classes, and it’s taken me this long to get into my stride of getting things done on time without waiting for the last moment. I think I’ve finally found a pattern that works well for me, and I’m going to try to stick to it.
I finished all of my homework (except for replying to fellow students’ postings since there are none yet) for my Operating Systems course last night. It was a good feeling to get it all done. I still have a little reading left to do for the class, though. I hope to get that done tonight. How did I do my homework without doing the reading? Well, there are two parts to the readings: the online reading, and the book. I finished the online reading, and that gave me enough information to get started on the homework. Where my knowledge fell short on the homework, I looked it up in the book. I still need to do the reading though since I’ll be tested on it next week.
I haven’t even started the homework for my Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) class yet. If time permits, I’m going to get started on it tonight, and try to get it finished by tomorrow night.
The main problem that I’m having is that most online courses follow the same pattern:
- Reading (online and book) to be done by Thursday night.
- Forum post by Thursday night.
- Reply to two forum posts by Sunday (sometimes Saturday) night.
- Homework turned into professor by Sunday (sometimes Saturday) night.
- Work on final project (which is due at the end of the term.)
This is a double-whammy for me since I have two classes that follow this pattern. That means double the normal homework to get done at the same time. Since I have D&D Thursday night, I have to get my homework done by Wednesday night. I lose a whole 24 hours of time, so that I can make it to the D&D game. Of course, if I don’t finish the homework by the end of Wednesday, I have to bail out of the D&D game for the week. I’ve been good so far, and this hasn’t had to happen. I hope that it doesn’t, but I know where my priorities stand. I’ll do it if I have to.
